Friday, December 31, 2010

Since I spent my holiday break at my brother's house (I headed back towards home yesterday) it seems only fair to have an Oomi update! She is still a psycho skittish kitty; I didn't get to pet her the whole time I was here! But also still cute.

This is her first experience of snow. My brother reports she was not a fan.

Luckily she knows how to keep warm!

And the snow did not dampen her Christmas spirit.

Also, via my brother, a movie filmed entirely by cats! Very cute. I think I find the kitty-sounds the most endearing part of the whole thing, although the focus is on what the cats see.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Tomorrow I leave Samson for a whole week; the longest time I have ever left him. He has a responsible and affectionate cat-sitter, but I'm still very worried about him being lonely, since he pretty much wants attention all the time. Hopefully he will get in some good naps, decimate his toy mice, and perhaps...use his scratching post?

And now, for the grand finale:

Ta-da! (In the background you can see my bikes, which I had to bring inside beforethe first serious snowfall, and which are now taking up my entire living room.)

Resting in the knowledge of a post well-scratched! (You can see bits of fluff lying behind him on the floor.)

No Weekend Concert Calendar this weekend, as there is SOME major holiday I can't remember quite WHAT geez I wonder what it could BE and therefore nobody has scheduled any concerts. There will be many beautiful church services with lovely singing, but investigating them and listing them is beyond my scope. If you are in the South Shore area, I encourage you to come and hear my own lovely choir tonight at 7 pm at First Parish Cohasset; we will be singing selections from Conrad Susa's Carols and Lullabies: Christmas in the Southwest. Otherwise, may you have a very merry Christmas tomorrow, and a lovely holiday season, and may your turkey, tofurkey or Chinese food be absolutely delicious!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Flash choirs are a variation on flash mobs. I have linked to them before. But I think they have probably hit their peak this season; I have gotten innumerable e-mails about the food court Messiah alone. I am sure we will soon be swamped with every community choir in the nation staging their own flash choir. Here are a few more.

Friday, December 17, 2010

This series of pictures of Samson was also taken by my friend Michelle, who is way better with the camera than I am! One of his favorite toys is string. (His main favorite toy is his little mice, but he is not interested in playing with those with me; I try to kick them around or throw them and he is NOT interested.)

Thursday, December 09, 2010

This is the most packed concert weekend of the year. Christmas concerts galore! There is no way to choose between them, so I am going to let nostalgia and blatant favoritism play a part, as well as considerations for what will engage your whole family (all the choices below are crowd-pleasers.)

Friday: On Friday night, check out the Boston Cecilia concert in the historic Church of the Advent. (I worked for this group for several years, and conductor Don Teeters never disappoints.) This is the concert to bring all your loved ones to in order to bask in some beautiful seasonal music.

Saturday: On Saturday, go see Musica Sacra's family-friendly "Welcome All That Make Good Cheer" concert. It starts at 7, so you can get the kids home at a reasonable hour! They are getting the nod for two reasons; one is that I just love Musica Sacra's programming, and the other is that they offered me comps. (I am unable to take them up on it, but appreciate the gesture! Hint, hint.) If you have no kids and have an extremely strong constitution, you also might consider the Back Bay Chorale's mammoth production of Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

Sunday: On Sunday, go see Cappella Clausura; there will be music AND dance. This program was so well received in years past that they are bringing it back, joining once more with Creationdance for "Gloria! A Renaissance Christmas Pagaent." This also is a great show for the whole family. And I am an alum of the group, so go say hi from me!

And although I have a policy of not giving shout-outs to concerts that are not inside Rt. 95 (merely to keep my sanity with regards to concerts in NE) I am going to be at the Concord Chorale concert on Saturday in NH (they also are giving a concert on Sunday.) Come say hi if you are up there!

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

We have another ticket giveaway! If you would like to see the Boston Cecilia perform this Friday or Sunday (and in my opinion this is going to be one of the most classic, elegant, beautiful concerts of the Christmas season) be the first person to leave a comment, and include the name to hold the ticket under, and which day you prefer.

Monday, December 06, 2010

Hallelujah! Here it is, the annual Messiah Sing post! This is a list of all the Messiah Sings in the Boston area. Sadly, some of them have passed (my apologies for not getting this post up last week!) But there are still plenty to come. If I missed one, or if you have further information about one of the sings listed, please leave a comment. I will edit the post to include updates; edits will appear in bold type.

And, to get you in the spirit, a little Messiah tidbit provided by my dad:

Macy's of Philadelphia occupies a store originally built in 1910. It features a ten story marble atrium at its center, with a layer cake of balconies surrounding three sides of the atrium. The fourth side houses the world's largest functioning pipe organ, with 28,000 pipes concealed behind a screen. With the advent of loud speakers the pipe organ fell into unplayable disrepair. When Macy's took over the building, they put millions into refurbishing the organ. It takes two full time folks to keep it in fine tune. As part of Random Acts of Culture, the Philadelphia Opera Company joined the organ in the Hallelujah Chorus earlier this year.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Hi-ho, Kermit de frog here, with your weekend concert calendar. This weekend's calendar is brought to you by the letters X, M, A, and S. There is one CLEAR front-runner for concert-going this weekend, and that is the Cantilena concert on Sunday! But it is just barely possible that there is some other stuff going on too.

Friday: Why not check out the Handel & Haydn Society's performance of Handel's Messiah? Harry Christophers is directing, and everyone will want to see what he does with it! If you miss it on Friday, it's also on Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday: It is tempting to put this paragraph in blinking text, but I will refrain. MY CHORUS, Cantilena, is performing on Sunday afternoon! 3 pm, First Parish Arlington in Arlington Center (630 Mass. Ave.) We are performing Holst's Hymns from the Rig Veda, Group 3 and Brahms' Four Choruses for Women's Chorus, Horns and Harp and some of John Rutter's Dancing Day carols, and some awesome stuff by Thompson, and some great stuff by Gawthrop, and we have a FABULOUS harpist, and my singers have all been working hard like champs, and it is going to be BEYOOTIFUL. Come hear us work our tails off to sound effortless (the program is titled "Transcendence".) PLEASE COME. I know I should knock off the capitalization, but it is a long week.

Friday, November 26, 2010

No choral concerts in Boston this weekend - all the choral singers are eating food and gathering their strength for the craziness of December. Go check out BEMF's production of Dido and Aeneas this weekend, and check back in next week as the December craziness rolls forth. A Messiah Sings post will be coming soon (maybe this weekend if I get my act together!)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Sorry, no Weekend Concert Calendar this week. Flu plus an extremely busy week means no time! Check out the Mystic Chorale and Zamir Chorale's joint concert this weekend; other than that, I will get back on the bandwagon next week. (And send me your Messiah Sing information - a big ol' Messiah Sing post will be coming up in the beginning of December.)

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Do you know a veteran? (I should think most of us do.) Treat them to a concert this weekend!

Friday:

I have nothing for Friday. Nothing! Very weird. In the absence of any straight-up choral concerts, I recommend going to see the Boston Opera Collaborative's production of Mark Adamo's Little Women. I have heard good things, and will be checking it out myself this weekend.

Saturday:

For Saturday, among many delightful offerings the Spectrum Singers are offering a totally fascinating program called "Sound the Trumpets!"; fascinating because I am unfamiliar with much of the repertoire they are presenting, and that always makes for a good time. From their publicity material:

"[The concert will include] Joseph Jongen's Mass for Chorus, Brass and Organ. Come hear why Jongen was considered a superb colorist and genius of form, harmony, and melody. The Mass is absolutely beautiful and moving. Also hear Marcel Dupré's Poème Héroïque for organ, brass and drum plus festive choral music by Lili Boulanger, William Mathias, Daniel Pinkham, Virgil Thomson and William Walton. With Heinrich Christensen on organ and a special pre-concert talk by Steve Ledbetter at 7:00." The concert is at 8 pm at First Church Congregational, Cambridge.

Check out Cappella Clausura's production of Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum. A liturgical drama, it is one of her major works and contains some of her most beloved chants. Cappella Clausura has updated this ancient play for modern audiences; in their version, "a soul interviews for a job at the Devil's corporation. Can she resist a tempting offer, or will she join a virtuous non-profit? Come find out in this unforgettable new production!" 5 pm at First Lutheran Church in Boston. Also on Saturday in Newton.

Saturday: Go to the BSO! In addition to Brahms' Symphony No. 2, they will be performing the rarely-heard Atlàntida (“Atlantis”) by Manuel de Falla. Sung in Catalan, this work is about the lost continent of Atlantis and its subsequent rediscovery by Columbus. This concert will be Friday, Saturday and Tuesday at Symphony Hall at 8 pm.

Sunday: It's a weekend for big choral works! On Sunday I recommend the Chorus pro Musica concert, featuring Dvorak's Mass in D as well as works by Janáček, Duruflé, and Holst. 3 pm at Old South Church in Boston.

Monday, November 01, 2010

This has been making the rounds, though hat-tip to EG for being the first to let me know about it.

Here, the musical talent of the next generation! (I would actually love to see him in front of a professional orchestra; how much fun would everyone have? I bet that would be a very positive feedback loop, and a hugely energetic performance!)

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Because of Halloween weekend, not so many choral concerts going on, but still enough to fill your dance card!

Friday: On Friday, take a little hike down to Providence to hear Zefiro, a group of eight Renaissance singers. They will be stretching their repertoire with a program called "Meditations," which will include Arvo Pärt's Prayer after the Canon, as well as a cappella works by Parry, Brahms, and more. If you don't want to trek down to Providence to hear them on Friday at 8 pm at St. Stephen's Church, check them out at 8 pm on Saturday closer to home, at the Nave Gallery in Somerville.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

How ironic that I write this entry with earplugs in my ears to blog out the music from my upstairs neighbor, who apparently only ever listens to one piece. Or at least music with one exactly-the-same bass beat. Anyways, moving on. What should you be listening to this weekend?

Friday: Of course on Friday I choose myself! Come to the Schola Cantorum concert tomorrow night (today, by the time you read this) at 8 pm at St. John's on Bowdoin St. in Boston. We will be doing a pile of English Tudor music, including Byrd's Mass for 4 Voices. And I have a solo on one of the Tomkins pieces! We are repeating this concert in Rhode Island on Saturday and Sunday; see the website for details.

I'm happy to announce the winners of the ticket giveaway. Shannon Rose is going to the Boston Cecilia concert, and Curious Patient is going to the Musica Sacra concert. Curious Patient, could you please e-mail me your real name? Otherwise you will have to go to will-call and ask for the tickets being held under Curious Patient. For real, I'm telling their manager that tomorrow morning!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

This is a very special week, as we have TWO ticket giveaways for concerts this weekend! They are on the same day, but life is full of tough choices.

The first concert is Musica Sacra, who have paired two great works together for what will no doubt be a very intense evening. They will be performing John Rutter's 20th century Requiem with the 17th century Musikalische Exequien by Heinrich Schütz. This concert is this coming Saturday, 10/23, at 8 pm, at the First Congregational Church in Cambridge (close to Harvard Square.)

The second concert is The Boston Cecilia, who are going Romantic with a program of Mendelssohn and Schubert. Tenor William Hite will be featured on the program, as well as pianist Barbara Bruns and up-and-coming mezzo-soprano Eileen Christiansen. (Please note: even if you don't win this pair of tickets, you can still get a two-for-one deal deal on the Boston Cecilia website if you use the code OCT50.) This concert will also be this coming Saturday, 10/23, at 8 pm at All Saints Parish in Brookline.

If you want a pair of free tickets to either of these concerts, leave a comment on this post before Wednesday at 6 pm, and tell me which concert you would want to go to, and what the last choral concert you attended was. I will choose one comment at random for each of the free pair of tickets. (Although if you truthfully tell me you have never been to a choral concert, I am throwing the random thing out the window and you are definitely getting one of the pairs!)

Monday, October 18, 2010

You may have heard by now of the "It Gets Better" project. Started by always NSFW sex advice columnist Dan Savage and in honor of Billy Lucas, a queer teen who committed suicide in September, this project asks LGBTQ folk to make a video talking to younger LGBTQ people who may be threatened, harassed, bullied, depressed, or otherwise going through tough times, to encourage them, tell them they are not alone, and assure them that their lives will get better. Many, many folks have contributed wonderful videos already, including both celebrities like Tim Gunn and my own friends.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

It has BEGUN. In my opinion, at least. The choruses, they are rolling out their first concerts, and the season is off to a good start! This is also the first week I will be challenged to stick to my new format, where I recommend only one concert per day. I know it's going to be good for getting a decent amount of sleep on Thursday nights, but it's hard to choose!

Friday: I think I have to pick the concert I'm going to, right? Probably the only concert I will get to this month that I am not performing in. BEMF presents Stile Antico, a Renaissance choir from Britain. Publicity folks make a big deal of the fact that they have no conductor and are self-directed, but with a dozen Renaissance singers having no conductor is pretty much the only right way to do it in my opinion (somebody up there conducting music with no bar lines only gets in the way); more exciting to me is the fact that they are supposed to be truly excellent.

Saturday: This is a good weekend for Renaissance music! If you go to Stile Antico on Friday, then you can go to the Blue Heron concert on Saturday and see how the home team holds up against them furriners! They will be singing music by Ludford and Aston from the Peterhouse Partbooks. Blue Heron are hot stuff; if you love early music and you have never been to one of their concerts, then you should be ashamed of yourself! And fix that this weekend.

Sunday: My pick for Sunday is "Halleluyah" at Emmanuel Church. Boston Jewish Spirit and Emmanuel are presenting an interfaith concert, featuring the Zamir Chorale under Joshua Jacobson, the Orpheus Singers under James Olesen (who are also giving two other concerts this weekend, see above) and the Spectrum Singers under John Ehrlich. This concert is a program of choral music celebrating the sesquicentennial of Emmanuel Church and the fifth anniversary of Boston Jewish Spirit. All three of these groups are great; all of them together should be fantastic!

Friday, October 01, 2010

So, I am sadly aware that I have missed the last two Friday cat posts. And you all must be wondering how Samson is. (Or, y'know, not.) Samson is fine...the dirty truth is that it turns out I am terrible at taking pictures of him. I mean, really. They are not good pictures.

To fix this, I think we should have WAY MORE guest spots on this blog. Do you have a cat? Want your cat to have its 15 minutes of fame? (Er, "fame"?) Drop me a comment, and we'll tawk.

In the meantime, here is an example of why I need photographic help. This is Samson trying to scratch his face on my feet. I mean, it's cute, but really, it's not an aesthetically pleasing photograph.

In other cat news, I was introduced to the funniest cat-related website ever by my new organist. (That deserves a whole excited entry of its own!) It is a website called "Simon's Cat" and features wonderful animated films about a very, er, personality-filled cat. The first one is a classic. Samson behaves quite a lot like this in the morning, although luckily without the denouement, and happily for me only when he perceives that I am waking up anyways. I also recommend this one for my mother in particular, who may recall a similar incident.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Hm. Choral concerts are thin on the ground this weekend, let me tell you. I can only offer you a couple of options on Sunday. (Friday and Saturday I suggest you explore other musical genres.)

On Sunday at 2:30 pm, you could attend one of the Cantata Singers Chamber Series concerts, titled "Vocal Chamber Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Friends." It will be at the Edward M. Pickman concert hall at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.

Monday, September 27, 2010

busy day today STOP no time for full sentences STOP go read about clothing and posture STOP interesting that they chose to do that first experiment with women not men don't you think STOP samson sends his greetings

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Concerts are not yet thick on the ground, this being September, but what there is is quality stuff!

On Friday, be sure to go to Emmanuel Music's performance of Alexander's Feast by Handel. This is new music director Ryan Turner's debut concert with the group, so you will want to be there to check him out! The usual roster of extraordinary singers will be there, along with the choir and orchestra, and the estimable and amiable Donald Teeters will be giving the pre-concert lecture at 7 pm. Located at Emmanuel Church in Boston, naturally.

On Saturday, go support Blue Heron by attending their Season Preview Event. Starting at 6 pm in the Chapel of the Episcopal Divinity School, you can hear samples of the 2010-2011 season, have some food and drink, and meet the musicians.

On Sunday, you can attend Opera Harvest, a gala benefit for the Boston Singer's Resource. The Boston Singer's Resource is a great, well, resource for singers in Boston - for one thing, they are one of the primary websites I use to create this here Weekend Concert Calendar, and for another, they are my primary source for audition notices. In addition to the venerable Robert Honeysucker, some of Boston's best young singers will be performing, including my fellow Anthology member Michelle Vachon! The festivities start at 3 pm at the Hamilton-Wenham Community House in South Hamilton.

Monday, September 20, 2010

I kind of fell down on the Weekend Concert Calendar and the Friday cat post last week. Oh, well, this week is a new week. Samson is still doing well; he got cat grass today, which he seems to like. (This seemed a good idea after I noticed him chomping on my bamboo plant.)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Cantilena just had our first round of auditions last night (there are two more weeks of auditions, so you still have a chance to try us out!) This means that today I got to call people and tell them that they were either in or out. I try to do this on the phone, because it just feels like I owe them at least that much.

And I want to say that I LOVE it when people say, "Can you tell me why I didn't get in?" YES! I can! And I really want to! Because I want you to continue to sing, and I want you to have an honest picture of your own voice, and I especially want to give you lots of advice on how to improve, so nothing would make me happier than to tell you why you didn't get in. In a gentle and constructive way, of course. If I just spent 20 minutes discussing your voices with members of my chorus last night, I definitely want to spend 2 minutes today discussing it with you.

So. It might feel awkward, people, and you might want to get away, or get off the phone as soon as possible, but please, ask me why you didn't get in! I will tell you. And honestly, I think it usually makes people feel better. The truth will not hurt as much as your own imagination.

This is on my mind because all the people I had to turn down today asked this question, and I thought it was very excellent and brave of them.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

While I am thinking about it, I'm interested in doing more ticket giveaways on the blog this year. So, consider having your chorus donate a pair or a pair of pairs of tickets; I'll announce the concert on the blog during your performance week, and whoever comments first gets free tickets. Run it by your chorus manager and let me know.

Not too much going on this weekend, as the year is just getting rolling. However, you should be auditioning for choruses! Check out the Boston Choral Consortium's website first; then also look at the Boston Globe. And good luck at your auditions!

Monday, September 06, 2010

OK! It's September! Time to throw off the the laziness of summer and get back to blogging! I am going to try to get back to regular Monday links, Thursday Weekend Concert Calendars, and Friday cat posts, hopefully with some actual content and thoughts sprinkled in there as well. Maybe on Tuesdays. The Weekend Concert Calendar format is going to change, though, so that it doesn't take me hours each week; I'll pick one concert per day that I think looks really stellar, and just list the names of the other ensembles who also have a concert on that day. (This saves time both with layout and data entry, and with googling countless churches to find their website addresses.) So I'm more imitating Jeremy Eichler's Classical Picks format.

Since it is Monday, here is your Monday link! This is courtesy of my mother. Freshman theory students of the world, memorize this and you have already aced your semester.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

My voice teacher Emily Romney, who also teaches at Longy, is available to coach choruses and choirs in the area on vocal technique. She came to Cantilena last year, and worked with us on a number of issues including breathing, posture, diction, and getting rid of tension in the jaw and tongue. We were singing a lot of complex poetry last semester, so the diction was particularly helpful; I also got a lot of enthusiastic feedback from the chorus about how she helped improve their technique. She enjoyed working with us so much that she decided she would like to do this with other choruses, so she put together a PR sheet on what she is offering. I highly recommend having her come and do a session with your chorus; even if you are well-versed in vocal pedagogy, it's always useful for people to hear the same good ideas from a new source! Information is here.

PSA over! Time to go see how my cat is holding up in this heat. Did you know cats don't sweat? (Well, only through their paws, which is not so efficient.) However, Samson is currently lying in a sunny window, so apparently he's fine.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Finally - it is the day that (a few of) you have been waiting for! Time to meet...my new kitty!

This is Samson.

He is 2.5 years old, and I got him from a shelter a week and a half ago. He is very cuddly and fairly conversational; he is extremely good-natured; he is occasionally interested in playing, but pretty much always interested in having his head scritched, and if you use only one hand to do it, he will nudge the other hand because clearly that hand should be scritching him also. He also has the softest hair ever; petting him is an extremely addictive activity. He always wants to be near me, and follows me from room to room; he prefers to be curled up with some part of his body touching mine. He is, in short, totally darling.

"What are you doing with that clicking flashing contraption? Shouldn't you be scritching my head?"

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Like everyone else, Cantilena will be holding auditions this fall; we are looking for strong women singers in every voice part, and especially at the very high or very low ends. Here are the details!

Cantilena, a womenʹs chorale directed by yours truly, is an ensemble of approximately 30 singers dedicated to performing music written for the treble voice. Our challenging and diverse repertoire spans the fifteenth to the twenty‐first centuries and includes works in many different languages and musical forms. We strive for a harmonious blend of voices and musical excellence in our performances.

Our repertoire this fall includes Brahms' "Four Songs for Women's Chorus, Two Horns and Harp", Holst's "Choral Hymns from 'The Rig Veda', Group 3", selections from Randall Thompson's "The Place of the Blest," and two pieces by Daniel Gawthrop. Our spring will be a celebration of madrigals, concentrating on Roger Bourland's settings of texts by Dickinson and Alarcon. (Of course, there will be a dash of Morley and Weelkes as well, and also possibly...Kodaly? You'll have to just come and find out!)

Rehearsals are on Monday evenings from 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM at the First ParishUnitarian Universalist Church in Arlington Center. The fall season runs from the firstMonday after Labor Day to the concert date in early December. The spring season runsfrom the first Monday after New Yearʹs Day to the concert date in early May. Cantilena holds open auditions at the start of each season. Members generally haveprior choral experience and either some sight‐reading ability or a very good ear. If you are interested in auditioning, we ask that you come to one of the first three rehearsals in September or January, sing with us, and then stay afterward for a brief audition with our artistic director (moi!) and audition committee. There is no need to reserve a spot, and no preparation is required. The audition consists of vocal exercises, tone matching, sight-reading, and singing a familiar tune of our choosing.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Hear ye, hear ye! We are taking a break from our non-existent summer blogging to announce that my quartet Anthology is in the recording studio! And we are soliciting assistance - click here to find out how YOU, yes you, can help!

Things I believe I already knew, but forgot: wow, recording is exhausting. When we get done with an afternoon's session, I am completely wiped out. Good thing I don't have a busy summer!

Friday, July 30, 2010

Friday, July 23, 2010

My summer blogging has trickled to basically nil; I moved on July 1, and then promptly went to a week-long seminar on conducting at Eastman. I'm back now, and currently trying to dig myself out of boxes ("dig" being a term that I wish was closer to exaggeration) and meet some programming deadlines for next year. Things may pick up in August, so check back then. For now, I present a very exciting picture of Oomi - my brother reports that "Oomi is becoming an outdoor cat - she's exploring the deck for the first time!"

Monday, June 28, 2010

Here is this year's list of Boston-area summer sings! As you can see, there's quite a lot to choose from, and you can sing Fauré's Requiem in particular as many times as your little heart desires. This is a great way to keep in vocal shape over the summer, so get out there and have some fun!

Monday, July 26 at 8 pm7-9 pmFauré's Requiem and Schubert's Mass in GConducted by Danica Buckley, hosted by The Choral Art SocietyFirst Parish Cohasset, 23 North Main St, Cohasset, MAEdit: Note the time correction! Don't be an hour late!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

I know I've been falling down a bit with the cat posts (last one was a month ago?!?) but we have an extra-special one today. Thanks to my globe-trotting parents, we've had pictures of Chinese cats and Turkish cats; now we have an Icelandic kitty from my brother and sister-in-law's recent trip to that island!

My brother says, "This cat was hanging out in a sculpture garden, then followed us for a few blocks out of the sculpture garden along with another cat."

There's not a lot going on this weekend - except me! My quartet Anthology will be performing a concert of jazz and folk at the Taylor House B&B tonight (Friday) at 7:30 pm. Come for the music, stay for the incredibly scrumptious spread that Taylor House always puts out for their concerts. Hope to see you there!

And...this will be the last Weekend Concert Calendar until the fall - I'm going on summer vacation. Keep your eye on calendar.boston.com if you want to know what's going on!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

I'm working on a comprehensive list of summer sings, but since it's not done yet, I wanted to give you a heads-up about a sing happening tonight! Masterworks Chorale is having their first sing tonight. It's the Brahms Requiem, and it will be at 8 pm at the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham. Check out their summer sings page for more information!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Happy Memorial Day Weekend! As far as concerts go, I have next to nothing. You can check out Renaissance quintet Melisma on Friday at 8 pm at the College Avenue United Methodist Church in Somerville, where they will be singing some Spanish and English Renaissance music. Or you could check out the Boston Opera Collaborative's evening of operatic trivia and performances, hosted by Ron Della Chiesa, at 8 pm on Saturday at the Dante Alighieri Society in Cambridge. But other than that, get outside and enjoy the lovely weather!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

First off, self-promotion! I have two big concerts coming up this weekend with my a cappella women's quartet, Anthology! We are doing a program of all new music - everything on the program was written for us by a composer in the Boston area. We have worked really hard on this concert, as you can imagine, and I would love to see as many of you there as possible!

A little more detail: We asked eight composers to write music on the theme of Light and Dark. The resulting works span an incredible diversity of styles and texts. We will be structuring the program so that each piece is performed twice, giving listeners more opportunity to appreciate and absorb the music. This year's composers are Peter Bell, Jonathan Breit, Brian John, Stefanie Lubkowski, Nikan Milani, Steven Serpa, Tony Solitro, and Po-Chun Wang.

8:00 pm: Musica Sacra; "Mary's Playlist: Choral Favorites from Thirty Years of Programming"; First Church Congregational, Cambridge. (I'm very sorry I'll miss this - I really do think Mary Beekman is easily one of the best concert programmers in the city.)

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the Back Bay Chorale's performance of Bach's B Minor Mass. It was quite an enjoyable experience, although it produced quite the internal intellectual quandary in me!

First things first, since I suspect that the vast majority of people to read this will be members of the chorus poking around the internet for reviews. The chorus's tuning was admirable, as was their rhythm; they were crisply in tempo the entire time, no mean feat. And their runs were remarkably clean for a chorus of their size; there was tons of space in the fast passagework, which was absolutely crucial. I really can't say enough good things about that amount of space in the phrasing. The majority of the singers were quite engaged, but there were some members who needed to get out of their books more (ahem, I noticed a few tenors in particular.) The orchestra was also very good; I especially enjoyed the flute solos.

The soloists were all extremely classy. Kendra Colton's instrument is a little too heavy for Bach for my taste, but her execution was flawless, and Krista River, Aaron Sheehan, and Sumner Thompson, all heavy hitters in the Boston area, were superb. I was also delighted to hear Sonja Tengblad given the chance to shine; I heard her at the Boston Singer's Resource auditions last month and her voice is ever so pretty, although I felt she was pushing a little given the size of the forces and the hall.

I had only one true complaint the entire night, and that for the maestro. Dr. Jarrett, come over here where no one can hear us. Now, I know you are more experienced than I. And I thought your gesture was both precise and expressive, something I envied greatly. You led the entire evening with intense focus and great aplomb. I know a number of your choristers, and they all not only love you, but think you are the greatest thing since sliced bread. And your excellent leadership clearly extends beyond the podium, because on a night with approximately a billion choral concerts the best seat I could get was in the back row of the balcony. But please, please, PLEASE do not mouth the words, especially to your soloists! You have done this before, and it drives me nuts! I admit this is one of my particular pet peeves, and I heartily disapprove of it when done to choruses, but doing it to soloists looks even worse. It gives the appearance you don't trust them and need to micromanage them. You know Krista River will make the magic happen, so please don't mouth at her. However, aside from that, I was amazed that you were able to lead such a large ensemble to such a tight performance of some very dense music.

And the subject of the size of the forces brings me to the main issue that pretty much dominated my experience last night. I'm not an early music expert, but I do love it, and I have always preferred a light, clean, crystalline sound for Baroque music, especially for Bach. I want everything to be as transparent as possible. So looking down at the giant stage with the sizeable orchestra and the massive chorus, I was pretty skeptical, and the Kyrie didn't really shake me out of my skepticism; it sounded like everyone was working very hard to stay clean, and didn't pack a clear emotional punch. But then the Gratias Agimus movement came, and it was really profoundly moving, as was the next chorus movement, the Qui Tollis. And I spent the rest of the concert waffling about questions of size. On the one hand, despite the chorus's rhythmic precision, and the amount of space they left between their runs, the size of the forces really precluded the highest level of lightness and transparency. On the other hand, the slightly slower movements sounded wonderfully rich in a way that a smaller force couldn't have managed. The Sanctus section really exemplified this dichotomy for me; the Sanctus, with its fabulous swingy sound, practically demanded an enormous choir, but then the Pleni sunt coeli, with its nimble runs, begged for a lighter sound. Big choir, little choir? This was the major question of the evening for me. I walked into the concert thinking I knew the answer; I walked out in a state of fluctuating doubt. The concert didn't answer the question; by posing a strong defense of the advantages of a large ensemble (with the Dona Nobis Pacem providing the perfect closing argument) it opened my mind up to the debate in the first place, a debate I hadn't really been open to before. So, well played, Back Bay Chorale.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wow, there is a lot going on this weekend. Good luck deciding what to do Saturday, especially. (Provided you're not actually performing, in which case the decision is pretty easy!) I think this is the peak weekend of the spring season!

About Me

My name is Allegra Martin, and I am a Boston-area choral conductor and singer. My jobs include: music director of Cantilena, a women's chorale in Arlington; choral conductor at Lasell College and director of the Lasell Village Voices of Experience; and music director of First Parish Cohasset. I sing in the area with Anthology, Schola Cantorum, and anyone who will hire me! I also teach private lessons in sight-reading, theory, and conducting.